THE FLORAL WOELD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 67 



tte length of each rod must be determined by its degree of ripe- 

 Dess. Better cut them back to one foot, and have hard, brown wood, 

 and plump, well-ripened buds, than allow any length of soft, green- 

 ish or slender v/ood to remain for fruit bearing. When pruned these 

 ripe rods are to be trained down horizontal within a foot or so of the 

 ground. They must be kept sufficiently far apart that their leaves 

 do not overlap, and the rule must be to bring them as low and as 

 nearly horizontal as possible. 



It is not possible always to explain the reasons for doing things 

 in a particuLar way, because of the digressions it occasions and the 

 space and time consumed. But I will here remark that, in the first 

 instance, we train the rods upright to encourage a vigorous growth, 

 and we abstain from pinching and pruning in order to cause the 

 lowest buds on the rods to ripen into a condition for bearing fruit 

 the next season ; for if we pruned the rods, the check caused to the 

 flow of sap would cause those buds to start, and we should get use- 

 less wood shoots instead of the much-desired fruit buds. 



In the winter pruning and tying down to the horizontal, we first 

 relieve the vine of a quantity of wood which, being least perfectly 

 ripened, is of least value, and thus throw the strength of the roots 

 into the buds that remain on the ripe wood for fruit, and the shoots 

 which are to be made for the next season. Tying down checks 

 growth, and usually, when a branch of a tree is brought to the hori- 

 zontal, one or more strong shoots start from its base, and take a per- 

 pendicular direction. This is just what we want these vines to do. 

 "While the pruned shoots are producing their fruit, there ought to be 

 three, or four, or five, or if only a couple, sufficiently stout canes rising, 

 and these canes should be trained upright as before, and be left 

 unpruued till the end of the season. Then we cut away and destroy 

 the canes which gave us fruit, and tie down a fresh set in their place, 

 and so on for ever, the vine continually renewing itself from the 

 root, just as a rose will do when it is in a quite natural condition, 

 and has roots of its own. 



Sometimes the vine will not produce fine canes to take the place 

 of those tied down. In such a case it may be advisable to allow some 

 of the old canes to remain until there are suitable canes to replace 

 them, thus allowing them to fruit a second or a third time, as they 

 will do. This would be called a combination of long-rod and spur 

 pruning, a combination by no means desirable, and only to be adopted 

 when, by a shyness of growth or any accident to a particular vine, 

 there happens not to be at the end of the season canes suitable for 

 the next year's use. 



But the best care will all be wasted unless the right sorts are 

 planted in the first instance. Black Hamburgh, Chasselas Musque, 

 Esperione, and other first-rate wall grapes, are but second-rate or 

 altogether useless when grown in open ground vineyards. The very 

 best varieties for the purpose are the following : — 



Moyal Muscadine. — As there are at least two varieties in culti- 

 vation under this name, it may be right to say here that the proper 

 one for wine-making produces a round berry of medium size ; the 

 bunch is broadly shouldered, averaging five to six inches each way ; 



